1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bit finder circuit for finding the first bit 0/1 in an m-bit input word from a start bit onwards and in a predetermined direction, the positions of said bits in said m-bit word being defined by an n-bit code.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such a bit finder circuit is generally known in the art and provides the position of the first bit 0 or 1 of the m-bit word considered from the leftmost bit onwards. This position is generally defined by a decimal m-bit code so that a code translator is required to have this code translated in the n-bit code, e.g. with m=2.sup.n if the n-bit code is the binary code. On the other hand, in certain cases it may be useful to find the first bit 0/1 of the m-bit word from the position of a bit which has just been processed onwards and not from the leftmost bit onwards.